Wah, sir must be very boring...

No, i did not overhear the boys say that, but i suppose that was definitely the impression that they must have gotten when i took over their class today. Why? Well here's a sample of the dialogue that went on during the class today.

Boy A: "Sir, do you play dota?" (and he asked this twice btw)
moi: "No."
Boy B: "Sir, then what online games do you play?"
moi: "Erm, none."
Boy C: "Sir, then what's your hotmail contact, erm, i mean msn?"
moi: "Sorry, i don't have one."
Boy C: "Wah sir so low tech one ah? *chuckles*
moi: ...
Boy D: "Sir then do you like sports?"
moi: "Not really..."
Boy B: "Sir, got girlfriend or not?"
moi: *shakes head*

(and so to elaborate on my response to Ade's question on the tagboard there ------->, one step at a time lah - not even attached, then think about possibly pesky children for what? And come to think of it, no, i don't want to have kids - cos i ain't no billy goat =p)

Anyway, this was a sec one class, the first one that i've taken - and i tell you - it's boys like this which remind me why i get irritated by children so easily. Of course, they're already thirteen this year - but at least some of their actions today didn't correspond with their supposed age. Suffice to say that i've never shouted so much in a class in my life as i did during this class (though to be fair to them, that was only my fourth out of four classes), to the extent that whenever they were making unnecessary noise and one particular boy saw me inhaling deeply, he would go: "wah, going to explode again!" then he and certain other boys would cover their ears... Was just thinking, since it was in school and not say, in an army camp, the good old "whole lot knock it down!!!", which was always my last line of defence with my men last time (though said in a strange tone cos my attempted fierceness always can never make it one...), would only land me in hot water... By the end of the class i had given up on shouting for fear of aiding the growth of throat polyps so i just wrote a note on the board - something to the effect of "you don't keep quiet for three minutes and you can stay back with me after the dismissal bell rings" - worked like a charm =)

Well, i could get extremely irritated by them and be extremely thankful that when i do finally teach for real chances are i won't kena sec ones again, but then i realised that all of ten years ago my sec one class (full of playful young boys as was this one ten years on) did all sorts of horrible things (which i can honestly say i played but a minimal part in) - what takes the cake of course was how some of the boys succeeded in delivering a mild but dramatic electric shock to our old lao shi (back in the days when i still was xue-ing hua yu - which meant i couldn't stand her as much as any other of the boys), dramatic because it resulted in a big flash of light and a loud boom, and also threw back the poor lao shi a few metres (but she was still standing) and made her hair even frizzier than it already way. I dunno if this incident played a part in her hasty departure from the school only six months after she had become our teacher (but in the defence of our class, she actually said that she liked our class when compared to the other sec one classes that she taught - i'll leave it to your imagination as to what they did to her...)

Ah, but pesky sec one boys aside (need lots of grace for that one) actually am beginning to see myself a bit comfortable in the shoes of a teacher - was rather enjoying explaining to a sec three class (whether they actually were interested i dunno though) more about the origins of the Malayan Emergency of 1948-1960, so much so that i ran out of time only having covered but bits of what i wanted to cover - gosh i feel like such a history geek...

In other news, went for another mega run today of 51:40 minutes at ecp again, then went to try pull-ups again and finally reached my (puny but realistic) target of six - which is the minimum needed to pass - laid my mind to rest quite a bit - though am not out of the woods yet... Over the past few times that i've been running (sparked by a train of conversation at Jasmine's sacred-secular divide workshop at FOC regarding how running could become a so-called sacred activity by praying while doing it), i've been trying just that to very limited success (have had better productivity when swimming or cycling) - but today went on fairly okay, less disruptions than usual...

Was subject to S'pore Idol torture just now cos my mother was watching it while i was eating - practically everyone i heard was really flat -terok sia...